I won't deny it. What I hate most about Winter is being cooped up in the house. Snow. ice and salt on the roads keep my bikes locked inside for long periods of time. The only thing I have these days is my snow blower. Last year I resolved that I wouldn't keep beating up on the little snow blower in my garage with hours long work on my driveway and mail ordered a bigger snow blower from Home Depot. My last snow blower was more suited to work in a suburb than it was for a hundred foot long, twenty foot wide strip of asphalt. Because of the lack of snow last year the new machine never left its crate and languished unopened until Summer when Linda....uh.....encouraged me to open it and put it together. All shiny and new I put oil in it but not gas and pushed it to the back of the garage. We transported it here to Hyde Park where I shoved it into a shed and all but forgot about it.Then Winter arrived. The week before Christmas an unexpected snow storm dumped seven inches of snow on my uphill driveway and out came the new snow blower. It made the job a whole lot easier than the shoveling I had to do previously for two lesser storms. In case I haven't made it evident in the past I love motor driven machines. Even when it's snowing and cold I love the sound and workings of a good gas powered unit. It was why I never shied away from mowing the grass in Deposit. A good rumbling engine makes me forget the drudgery of the task. And substitutes, temporarily, for not being able to ride. Spring is coming and all will be well. In the meantime I have the snow blower to stir my soul.